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SotB XXXVI: Preying on Predators
The Agents are called to a primitive world to assist game hunter Vincent Pierce in containing a menace that could threaten the very existence of a developing sentient species. Agents Session 1 * Gristle * Hack * R0C-K4 * Rogesh Vai * Saber Scintel Session 2 * Alro * Derra Asbra * Eve * Hack Mission Report Summary by Ben While wandering the ship R0C finds a blinking light and intermittent tone coming from one of the consoles in Balken’s makeshift lab. After testing a few buttons, a holographic message appears from Dr. Maronea. He goes to get Rogesh, Saber, Gristle and Hack and plays the message again. She requires help on a planet called Daak located rimward of Hutt Space. It’s not a friendly place and most references to it are through resources obtained there, mainly drugs. Rogesh recalls some information about the drugs themselves, which are derived from plants that can only survive for extended periods on this particular planet. In order to answer Maronea’s distress call, the group heads to Daak after picking up some cold-weather gear in order to circumvent the planet’s inhospitable environment. Homing in on the source, they find a facility built into the side of a mountain on the planet’s northern side. The facility, however, has suffered some major damage. Part of it has collapsed, and the remaining sections are covered in scorch marks and holes. Gristle performs a scan from the Sunflare and finds two life signs in a room just beyond the hangar. Gristle calls up Maronea from Balken’s terminal, and she answers, explaining that it is both her and Vincent Price waiting, sheltered from the cold. After landing the Sunflare, the team moves to meet up with Maronea and Vincent. One of Maronea’s associates had been assigned to this facility a while back, and since then, its subjects had gotten loose and all of this damage had been caused. What happened between those two points is unknown, and she didn’t have the time to gather much without power to the facility’s consoles. The agents split off to look for parts to power on one of the consoles, and Gristle starts sniffing around for any other signs of life that the ship’s scanners may not have caught. He smells a lot of burnt material and studies a few of the holes in the building’s structure, finding that many of them were created from the inside. Rogesh happens across a HAX-series medical droid, and with the help of Vincent and Gristle, reactivates it. Rogesh requests access to its memory, but it requests authorization in return. Gristle asks it, instead, to just replay what it can from its memory banks, and it lists out some old patient checkup schedules, and its activity ends with its deactivation. Some damage on the droid’s chassis appears similar to the burn marks seen throughout the rest of the facility. Rogesh deactivates the droid again and, although R0C protests at first, he and Gristle try to access its memory manually, but are locked out. Seeking out more information, Rogesh requests that Saber try to use his powers to foresee what might occur. He sees, in a vision, two eyes over a roaring fire and a voice whispers his name. In the meantime, R0C gathers up just enough cable to connect the power source of Vincent’s ship to one of the computer banks. The screens flick on, displaying a containment breach warning, accompanied by the following text: “Subject 85 has experienced a level 5 activation. It has broken free of containment and already sterilized level 5. Moving teams to respond.” Rogesh accesses what he can of the logged security feed. Saber recognizes some of the roaring sounds from his vision, including the sound of fire. There’s also some chittering and the sound of stun blasts. No one can correctly identify any of the sounds, but the chittering is similar to children. Vincent is convinced that whatever was released is still out there, and Maronea informs the group that Daak does have a native sentient species that are ursine in nature, and whatever was released may be a danger to them. Without many more options for recovering information, the agents head out with Vincent to pursue whatever it is that escaped the facility. Pooling their efforts, the team searches the forest in the valley, and Gristle and Rogesh soon find signs of burning on the trees. The trail leads them to a collection of structures, and the only sign of life is the familiar chitter and roar from the security recordings they’d accessed. Hack and R0C move into the village while the others hang back, and they spot one of the native bear-like people fighting of a swarm of the chittering, flying creatures. At once, all of the creatures shoot beams of flame from their mouths, knocking the native down before they all descending on him. The rest of the agents move in to help, with Saber force-pulling several of the creatures from the bearman’s body. Rogesh strikes out, wrapping his whip around one of them and throwing it into another. Routed, the remaining ones flee and Gristle moves in to treat the native’s wounds. The daakin is healed with a little work, and it sits up to grab its axe. R0C intercepts the axe and Rogesh holds up the corpse of one of the creatures to show that they’re on the same side. Saber notices that the daakin is trying to use the Force and uses his Influence power back to instill some positive emotion. It speaks back something that sounds like Saber’s name and directs them further into the forest. Gristle looks over one of the bodies in the meantime, and finds that they don’t appear to be biologically engineered, nor do they seem native to the planet, despite being able to thrive here. They’re led into a daakin settlement, wherein they hear the sounds of people talking and working. Vincent doesn’t think it’s a good idea to head inside, and Rogesh senses that the hunter is nervous for some reason. Vincent decides to wait nearby while the agents head in with their new native companion. The one escorting them is the only one whose fur appears solid white. He leads them further up the mountain and through the fortress, to another solid-white daakin sitting at a fire. It appears to be the same person Saber had seen in his vision. Much to everyone’s surprise, he begins to speak crude basic and claims to have learned it by listening. The elder explains that the creatures have been growing stronger, and that defeating them is becoming too great a task for their dwindling ranks of warriors to accomplish. However, he also implies that a choice is involved in eradicating the monsters, and that Saber has the potential to be something called “Ursan.” Gristle takes the corpse he’d collected and brings it to a clean area where he sets up his medical equipment and performs an autopsy. He finds that they are capable of asexual reproduction, mature in about half a year, are distantly related to trandoshans, and are able to produce flame using glands of volatile chemicals. Meanwhile, the others rest and recuperate, and once they are ready, they head out with the elder. They are taken to a cave, wherein the elder claims “Ursan are born”, but also says that “it” has tainted the cave and made it impossible for more “Ursan” to be born. It’s implied that the cave is some sort of ritual area where ordinary daaken are initiated and made into the warrior caste known as Ursan. While they linger, a roar echoes out from the cave and after a few moments, more roars call back from deeper into the valley. The elder insists that he and the other Ursan hold off the rest of the ‘brood’ at the entrance. Gristle, having suggested that he is some sort of shaman, bestows his ‘blessing’ in the form of some adrenal stimulants on some of the warriors, as well as Rogesh. Vincent calls in and asks for help climbing to an alternate entrance from which he can provide some cover. Heading into the cave, R0C and Gristle catch a hissing sound and manage to spot a pair of large lizards just before they descend upon the group. Oddly enough, however, the lizards don’t appear to be closely related to the other creatures. The group dispatches them easily enough, aside from a burst of acid being spit at Hack. Continuing deeper, the agents feel a blast of heat, and a large chamber with a massive, open ceiling lies ahead. The winged creature roars and reveals itself before diving down from above. Saber throws R0C up at it, but the creature rolls and bats R0C back to the ground with its wing. Gristle activates his stealth field and retreats while informing the crew, as well as Vincent of the rough location of the creature’s flame glands. R0C directs the others and opens an opportunity for Saber to reach out and bind it mid-flight. The creature struggles and resists, but the battle against Saber’s will causes it to close its eyes and pass down before crashing to the ground. R0C strikes at its neck while it’s down, causing it to bleed profusely. Vincent begins lowering himself from the opening above and levels his rifle to finish it off, but R0C insists and strikes again to execute it. After a request from R0C, Gristle extracts some of the chemical from one of the undrained glands in the dragon-thing’s head. With their business done, the group bids farewell to the daakin and make their way back to the facility, where they see Balken’s ship waiting, along with the drall himself and his fleet of droids making some repairs to the ransacked consoles and facility droids. SotB 036